Last Thursday, we brought together a fantastic group of marketers in Leeds for CIM Yorkshire’s latest event, held as part of Leeds Digital Festival.

As Chair of CIM Yorkshire, I’m proud of the team for organising another thought-provoking panel and creating opportunities for marketers to connect, share ideas and learn from each other.

Our theme was “Disrupt or Decline? Brand Relevance in the Age of Digital Disruption”, and we were joined by four very different marketing leaders:

• Lawrence Christensen, Marks & Spencer
• Clare Grimshaw, Craghoppers
• Daniel Matson, Yorkshire County Cricket Club
• Jessica Rhodes CMktr, Global B2B Marketing Leader

With Marisa Crimlis-Brown expertly chairing the discussion, we explored what it really takes for brands to remain relevant when technology, AI, changing consumer expectations and an increasingly crowded marketplace are constantly challenging the status quo.

So, what does brand relevance actually mean?

We started with a deceptively simple question: “What does brand relevance actually mean?” The answer came through strongly; the customer. Brands are competing for two increasingly scarce resources: people’s time and their money.

For me, that brings us back to something that is easily forgotten in the rush to keep up with digital disruption; the brand promise still matters.

You can have the latest technology, the cleverest campaign and an impressive social media presence, but if the experience doesn't live up to the promise, relevance doesn't last.

This applies in B2B as much as B2C. Jessica highlighted how new entrants and changing technology intensify competition, making close customer relationships and a clear understanding of their needs essential.

Know your audience – today and tomorrow

One of the strongest themes from the discussion was the importance of genuinely understanding your audiences.

Daniel described Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s audience as spanning young children to supporters in their 80s and 90s, with very different expectations, behaviours and reasons for engaging.

That does not mean creating a different brand for every audience, but maintaining a clear, consistent core while making the proposition relevant to different people.

“Audience led, content driven, platform enabled.”

Start with the audience, understand what they want and where they spend their time, create genuinely relevant content and propositions, then choose the platforms that will reach them.

Attendee feedback also highlighted the need for brands to think more multi-generationally.

What attracted your current customers to your brand won't necessarily attract their children or grandchildren.

Customer research and, importantly, ongoing listening are essential if brands are going to understand how expectations are changing.

Relevance doesn't mean chasing every trend

Another interesting discussion was around the difference between what is timeless about a brand and what is simply habit.

But the opposite is also true. Innovation doesn't always mean throwing everything away and starting again.

Lawrence talked about the balance at M&S between genuinely new products and evolving things that customers already love. Sometimes innovation is about a completely new idea. Sometimes it is a relatively small change that makes an existing product better or more relevant.

Clare also talked about Craghoppers' evolution from being primarily an outdoor clothing brand towards becoming more of an adventure brand, thinking about how the brand can be emotionally relevant to customers and be part of the experiences and memories they are creating.

The challenge isn't to constantly change for the sake of change. It is to understand what your customers value, what is no longer working and where there is an opportunity to evolve.

Don't underestimate the power of partnerships

Clare shared the example of Craghoppers' partnership with the National Trust, which has created a natural connection between two audiences with shared interests. The collaboration allows Craghoppers to tell a conservation story, while helping the National Trust reach younger and more diverse audiences.

Lawrence also talked about the partnership between M&S and Sephora, demonstrating how established brands can create new experiences and reach new audiences through carefully chosen collaborations.

Rather than relying on traditional advertising to reach a specific audience, the partnership provided access to an existing community that closely matched the target customer.

The right partnership can give you credibility, access to a relevant audience and a much more natural route to market.

Attendee feedback reinforced that consumers have rich and varied lives, and brands may have more in common with non-competing organisations in those lives than they realise.

So, who could you collaborate with in your own sector or niche to deliver greater value for your customers?

AI can make us more productive – but are we using the time wisely?

Of course, no discussion about digital disruption would be complete without talking about AI.

There was strong support for AI as a productivity tool, but also an important warning: if it saves time, are we using that time to think, create, understand customers and solve problems, or simply to produce more?

There was also concern about a backlash against generic AI-generated content and imagery: if every brand produces similar material, the technology intended to help us stand out could make brands look increasingly alike.

For me, that comes back to the importance of human judgement and creativity.

AI can help us research, explore ideas, save time and get things moving. But it doesn't replace the expertise, experience and creative thinking that makes marketing effective.

And perhaps the real benefit of AI should be creating more time to think.

Complacency is the real danger

Another challenging point from attendee feedback was that complacency is dangerous.

The brands succeeding today are listening to their customers, and acting on what they hear.

Established businesses can easily fall into the trap of assuming that because something has worked for years, it will continue to work.

But customer expectations change. Competitors change. Technology changes. Culture changes.

And if a business stops listening, there will always be someone nimbler and more customer-focused ready to spot the gap.

When was the last time you sat down with a customer, prospect or buyer and changed something about your product, service or marketing because of what they told you?

That's a much more useful question than simply asking whether your brand is keeping up with the latest trend.

A big thank you

Events like this don't happen without a team of people working behind the scenes, and I’m incredibly proud of the CIM Yorkshire team for making this one happen.

A huge thank you to Rachael Simpson, Michelle Hurford, Devon Page, Anand Narayanan and Pippa White, alongside the wider CIM events team, for all the work that went into organising the event.

Thank you also to MET Marketing Recruitment for sponsoring the event, Hippo for providing such a great venue, and Leeds Digital Festival for enabling us to be part of the programme.

And, of course, our biggest thank you goes to our four panellists; Lawrence, Clare, Daniel and Jessica – for sharing their experiences, challenges and ideas so openly.

A special thank you too to Marisa Crimlis-Brown, who did a fantastic job of hosting the panel and creating an environment where the conversation could develop naturally.

Finally, thank you to everyone who came along and contributed to the discussion.

Attendees valued seeing familiar faces, meeting new people and contributing questions and observations, exactly what CIM events should be about.

Bringing marketers together, creating space for interesting conversations and leaving people with something to think about.

Judging by the conversations continuing afterwards and the feedback received since, we achieved that.

I’m incredibly proud of the team, the speakers and everyone who came along and made it such an enjoyable and thought-provoking afternoon.

In a world where everyone is talking about disruption, perhaps the real challenge for brands is knowing what to change – and what not to.

Now, what shall we tackle next?